CNN: Judge OKs request for secret Burris tapes
A federal judge on Tuesday approved sending to the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee recordings of secretly taped conversations between Sen. Roland Burris and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's brother, which took place before the Burris appointment.

CNN: Liz Cheney doesn't rule out future run for office
Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a former State Department official, said Tuesday that she isn't planning to run for public office anytime soon, but didn't rule out the possibility for the future.

NYT: Leadership Mystery Amid N. Korea’s Nuclear Work
In dealing with North Korea, American officials are reduced to studying two-month-old photographs of its reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il, to calculate how long he is likely to live. The new administration’s North Korea team includes a special emissary who works part time as an academic dean and a State Department official who has yet to be confirmed by Congress.

CNN: Former NYPD commissioner Kerik indicted
Former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik was indicted on charges of making false statements to White House officials vetting him for the secretary's seat at the Department of Homeland Security in 2004, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

CNN: N. Korea: No longer bound by 1953 truce
North Korea threatened military action Wednesday after South Korea joined a U.S.-led effort to limit the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

CNN: Blast destroys police building in Lahore
A well-coordinated attack involving gunmen and an explosives-packed vehicle reduced a police building, with at least 200 people inside, to rubble in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday.

CNN: Secret raids ensnare 10 mayors in Mexico
More than two dozen Mexican public servants, including 10 mayors and several police chiefs, allegedly linked to illicit drugs and organized crime were arrested in simultaneous raids in Michoacan state, its governor said.

CNN: More Somalis flee heavy fighting in capital
Described as the largest single gathering of displaced residents in the world today, tens of thousands of civilians are seeking shelter along the Afgooye corridor outside Mogadishu, according to the United Nations.

CNN: GM bondholders reject offer
General Motors has fallen far short of the bondholder support it needed for its proposed debt-for-stock offer, according to a source familiar with the matter, virtually guaranteeing that the nation's largest automaker will be forced to file for bankruptcy court protection within the week.

NYT: Russians Spend Big for a Piece of Facebook
A Russian investment firm, Digital Sky Technologies, has invested $200 million in the social networking company Facebook in return for a 1.96 percent stake, the two companies said Tuesday.